The real thing 18
by AnnKa
Summary: The team goes out to their favorite bar, so this is set right after the last part I posted. Besides the fun time with the team, both Derek and JJ wait with a surprise.


Another part of the sequence of stories I'm posting. The stories can stand for themselves, but still belong all together.

Thanks to REIDFANATIC and lovelover7891 for Beta Reading and the great advice.

Criminal Minds is not mine.

The real thing

The team met in their favorite bar. By the time the couple had arrived, the rest of the team was already sitting around the table. Not only was the team present, but the team's significant others—Kevin, Will, and Beth—too. Ashley had also joined the group.

"Wow, Rossi, you need to find yourself a date," Emily commented with a grin after taking in the scene and seeing the older agent's aloneness.

"Careful, you don't want to be responsible for divorce number four," Morgan joked along, squeezing her hand, while giving her a wide-toothed grin.

"You know, he's probably right. But, shouldn't you be paying attention to your own relationship? I thought you said you wouldn't date a girl with a gun?" Rossi didn't take a second on shooting back, winking at the couple.

"Touché."

They all laughed as the new arrivals ordered their drinks. Their small, tight-knit group had certainly grown over the last few years and it was the first time Emily actually took a count. As she gazed around the table, taking in everyone together, all at once, a small smile came to her face. The little bit of family she had found in her team had slowly grown in this big and beautiful group.

"What are you smiling about?" JJ bumped her shoulder to shoulder, giving her a smile.

"Just thinking… This... our family…. grew quite a bit," she said contemplatively, waving a hand across the table.

The blonde also glanced over at their group and smiled softly. "And it keeps growing…"

Emily, sensing something in JJ's voice, focused her attention solely on her friend. "What do you mean?"

"Well…" JJ started, her lips turned up in a secretive smirk, as she reached for Will's hand.

The profiler in Emily, however, now had her eyes on JJ's free hand that held a glass of something orange.

"Orange Juice!" Emily's exclamation interrupted all the conversations that had been going on at the table. "Does that mean what I think it does?"

Everyone's eyes were now fixed on the two women, giving them puzzled looks.

"I'm pregnant," JJ announced proudly.

"About time!" Penelope exclaimed, hurrying around the table to hug the expecting couple. "Congratulations! When are you due?"

"Not until February." JJ smiled before glancing over at Hotch. "And since we are on announcements, I'm not going through this in the BAU again."

Garcia's face fell as she stared at her friend. "You can't just leave me alone with all those men."

"I'm all right with having to travel all over the country while extremely pregnant once in my life," JJ explained.

"Actually, one of the people in my department is talking about retirement," Emily interrupted as the thought came to her mind, her face lightening up at the prospect of having JJ around more often. "And that way Pen can just pick us up for lunch."

The deal was sealed with Hotch and Emily promising to look into a possible transfer in the next few days.

"Want to dance?" Derek asked the whole group, but his eyes were only on her.

"Rossi you better find yourself a date." She winked, picking up where they had left off with the teasing earlier before following Derek to the dance floor.

Soon, after all the couples had joined them, besides Reid and Ashley who kept the Senior Special Agent company, the ladies turned out to have a lot more energy than the men. Even Morgan disappeared rather fast from the crowded dance floor.

"We need to do this more often."

"Sure, it's not like I'm going to be turning into a whale-fish soon." JJ grimaced at the suggestion.

"That's why you adopt, hun." Emily winked. They all laughed as they adjusted to the faster music.

"Em!" The brunette was about to follow the finger JJ pointed to a spot behind her, when two strong arms wrapped around her. Since she was moving to the music, the jump of surprise wasn't quite as obvious, but she still hurried to turn around.

"Chill, princess." A big grin on Morgan's face met her after turning around.

"You are so lucky JJ tried to warn me; I might have accidentally killed you." She was only half joking. With her past, it had happened on more than one occasion that she had overreacted to someone surprising her. He smirked before kissing her, a very efficient way of soothing her.

"You have a minute?" he asked, already taking her hand.

"Sure." She waved at her friends before following him through the crowd to the back door.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see." They stepped outside and she followed him to a small set of stairs. Although it was a warm summer night, she shivered. She was still hot from dancing so the temperature difference seemed higher than it actually was. Soon, they'd reached the roof of the two-story building. She smiled as she looked up to see the stars shinning over them.

"This is beautiful," she murmured appreciatively. She walked a few steps across the top of the building. She could feel him move closer from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Just like you."

She smiled as she leaned back into him. She placed her hands on top of his. They stood like that for a long time. Instead of over thinking as she usually did, she just enjoyed the feel of his body behind her, reveling in his embrace. She closed her eyes, pressing into him further.

"We should just stop time right here." She could feel him place a small kiss on her neck, before moving around her, reaching for her hands. When she opened her eyes to face him she, instead, stared into the dark sky. Confused, she looked to the left and right before finally glancing down to where she found Derek.

"What are you doing?"

He stared back at her without answering. He felt like his brain was suddenly washed clean and he had no idea where his planned speech went. While he was at a loss for words she took in his position. He was on one knee still holding her hands, looking relatively lost. She smiled when he took a deep breath.

"I had this planned, but, well… I guess I got nervous," he joked, before turning more serious. "Emily, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. When I first met you, I automatically put you on my unavailable list, because you were my partner and more importantly way too good for me. You became my best friend, nevertheless. You have had my back for the past seven years. You made me laugh and, on rare occasions, cry. But you kept me going either way. You are a wonderful mother to our children." One of his hands let go of hers and began to fumble with his back pocket. "I know we already agreed on this, but a beautiful woman like you deserves the official version." His hand came forward and with the little light there was she could make out a silver ring with a small diamond in the center.

"Emily Elizabeth Prentiss, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

The brunette stared at him quietly. She had certainly expected many things to happen tonight, but not this. They had already agreed on getting married and therefore she had crossed out the idea of a surprise, romantic proposal. Of course, he had promised her a ring, but with all the excitement in her life she had forgotten about it too.

"Yes, of course." She smiled as she watched him place the silver band on her finger. Not being able to wait a moment longer, she sank to her knees, as well, to meet him for a kiss. She could feel him smile against her lips. Slowly, she opened her eyes after breaking the kiss. "You are crazy," she whispered, only inches away from his face.

"Crazy in love," he corrected, giving her a wink.

He shifted into a more comfortable position, pulling her half onto his lap, half on the ground. "I have two more things I would like to talk about before we go back to the party downstairs."

"What would they be?"

He smiled at her curious look. "Well, while I was talking to Declan earlier I asked him to be my best man and he agreed."

A bright smile spread across her lips, while her eyes filled with tears. "That's great!" she said earnestly. She hadn't asked either of her men what the talk they had resulted in. Declan had been talking to Derek again, so she had assumed they'd come to some kind of understanding.

"The other thing is more of a request." His fingers had found a lock of her hair and were now twirling it. "When we started talking about this, we were talking about getting married next year or whenever else it felt right." He could feel her nod against his shoulder. "Well I was thinking… I'd like October 16 to be our wedding day. I'll leave it up to you if you want to wait over a year, or if we just surprise everyone by getting married in two months."

She raised her head from his shoulder to be able to look at him.

"What's so special about the sixteenth of October that you suddenly care about the date?"

He smiled at her question. His eyes went up to the night sky tracing the stars, while his fingers were still playing with her hair.

"Last year on that day, I got a second chance that I never expected to get."

Her forehead wrinkled in the process of thinking. His eyes found hers, before he started to recall the day.

_16 October 2011_

_Derek glared at his boss. There was no time for sitting down. Doyle was almost ready to help them. His boy meant everything to him, although he tried not to admit it. They had to find the boy; if there was anything he could still do for his dead partner it was to save the boy. Now was just not the time to give long speeches and he knew Hotch, this was going to be one of them. His hands pressed into the soft back of his chair._

"_Seven months ago I made a decision that affected this team. As you all know Emily had lost a lot of blood after her fight with Doyle." His brain jumped back to the day, but he wasn't willing to let the pain come back right now. Where was his boss going with this?_

"_But the doctors were able to stabilize her." His head jerked up to meet the older man's eyes. How could Emily have been stabilized when she was dead an hour later? He narrowed his eyes, one thought in his head coming faster than the last. Suddenly the solution was there and his eyes went back and forth between his boss and JJ, who looked awfully guilty. No, this just wasn't possible._

"_And she was airlifted from Boston to Bethesda under covered exportation." His eyes wandered to his colleagues trying to find out if they had just heard the same thing he had heard._

"_Her identity was strictly need-to-know. She was reassigned to Paris where she was given several identities, none of which we had access to for her security."_

_Finally, Garcia asked the question his own soul was demanding to get answered but couldn't say out loud because he had been rendered speechless. "She's alive?" His eyes moved to Reid, who spoke another thought that had been running through his mind: "But we buried her."_

"_As I said, I take full responsibility for the decision, if anyone has any issues they should be directed towards me." Derek stared blankly at his boss. Slowly, his anger took over from the surprise of the news. How could Hotch leave them in the dark for seven months? Those seven months had been hell on earth. Thinking he had lost his partner, trying to find the blame in his actions. Trying to find the point where he should have been able to notice the change in Emily, the point where he was supposed to act differently and be able to save her before it was too late._

"_Any issues?" He finally managed to get a few words out. "Yeah, I got issues." _

_But nobody answered as everyone turned towards the footsteps that had been coming closer in the past few seconds._

_Emily. He didn't actually speak the words out loud. Her apologetic look told him that she had heard his last few words and he immediately felt sorry for her. Without knowing anything about her side of the story, he was sure that she had followed orders or maybe even tried to protect them still. No, his anger was directed towards those who had made the decision. Those who had kept it a secret for the past seven months. The man who had offered him grief counseling while knowing the truth the entire time._

"_OMG!" he heard Garcia gasp out. But he couldn't take his eyes off the woman he'd thought had been dead for so long. He glanced back at Hotch for just a split second. When he looked back at the brunette her eyes met his. That's when he knew he was right. This decision, made above their pay-grade, had hurt her as much as any one of them._

_Slowly, the team began to move. Penelope was first the reach Emily, to hug her. Reid was next and then suddenly the apologies he had expected came from her lips and her eyes caught his again._

_She might have been gone for seven months, but he was still able to look straight through her. When it came to hiding things, that was the hardest to do with a partner and that was what they were: partners._

"_Really I…" She moved towards him, now apologizing to him personally. "You didn't deserve that." Her hand brushed over his arms, a weak gesture of trying to reassure their friendship. "I'm so sorry." He could see the regret in her eyes and something else. He saw the fear of being rejected. Then her arms wrapped around him, softly brushing over his back. The first few seconds he wasn't able to move. It felt so unreal; her dark hair brushing against his cheek, her breath coming through the thin material of his shirt, her hands on his back, her body leaning against his, so close._

_He could feel her starting to move away when he didn't return the embrace. That's when he moved; his hand pulled her back close. It hurt, but he was not going to hurt her any more than she already was._

Coming back from the memory, he drew her closer to his body. When she spoke again, her voice was very quiet, "You never told me about this."

"You were there."

"I can't read your mind, although sometimes I would love to." They both smiled, staring out at the dark night sky for a while.

"You were right. I was more afraid of the team hating me than I was of Doyle that day." She turned her head. "Especially of you turning me down… If you had rejected me, I would have never returned to the team."

"Well, I'm glad I moved in time, then," he answered with a smirk, placing a small kiss on her nose. "I love you, Emily."

She smiled back at him. "I love you, too. And I think a wedding in two months will work just fine."

They sat on the roof for a little longer, enjoying the rare time alone together and their new official engagement. Emily smiled when she felt his phone vibrate seconds before the ringtone sounded.

"They finally noticed we're gone."

"And they still call." He rolled his eyes. She laughed and got up, looking down at him while he answered his phone.

"Baby girl, what's up?" He listened for a moment before he started to laugh. "We'll be back in a few and just to calm that dirty mind of yours, we were fully clothed the whole time." With that he shut his phone and took his fiancée's offered hand to get up.

His arm wrapped around her waist and they finally made it back to the table. Emily couldn't help laughing as she saw Pen's curious eyes on her and Derek. His sentence made a lot more sense now.

"Oh, we're honored that you could join us again," Rossi greeted them with an amused smile.

"All those people who feel honored by me tonight." It took Derek a moment to get her joke, while everyone was just staring at her blankly.

"So, if you weren't doing what I think you were doing…" Emily rolled her eyes while looking at Penelope. "What were you doing for an hour?"

"We were gone that long?" The newly engaged couple was honestly surprised and glanced at Derek's clock. "We had some stuff to discuss."

"I need the 16 of October off, by the way," Derek interrupted her, addressing Hotch.

The older agent nodded.

"We should be able to do that."

"Actually, everyone else at this table might need the day off too, although it's good enough for me just to have Derek there." She carefully placed her hand with the new ring on the table so that everyone could see it.

"I'm not sure if I can do that," Hotch responded not getting the hint quite yet. "What's the occasion?"

"Try," Morgan simply said.

JJ grabbed her glass of orange juice. With that movement her eyes caught sight of the sparkling piece of jewelry on Emily's finger.

"OMG, I definitely want that day off." She let go of her glass and reached for her best friend's hand, instead. "Are you in a hurry now that you got that little piece of official confirmation?"

Garcia's eyes went wide, her hand snatching over the table to grab the brunette's hand. "Why didn't I know about this happening?" She glared at her best friend, who just grinned innocently.

"I wanted it to be a surprise, baby girl and yes, you can start your wedding planning now."

With one of her arms stretched out across the table, she used the other one to return the hug Jennifer now gave her.

"Sorry for stealing your thunder." She said quietly to her friend, as an hour before it had been her friend's big moment.

"With this news, anytime," JJ smiled at her.

"Under these circumstances, I'm pretty sure we can arrange for the team to be home on the 16th," Hotch added to his congratulations. "I think it can be counted as family related time."


End file.
